Thursday, July 10, 2014

First mention Thursday: Zola Blood, Grubs, Cast And Crew, Childhood

Zola Blood - Grace

In these pages we've already declared a moritorium on the spread of both anonymous new bands and bands with names punning on famous people's names. So obviously here's a band who are both. Given it's doubtless going to turn out to be someone who was once in a failed major label landfill indie band it had to be special, then, and this has a way of subtly, uncomfortably forcing its way under your skin with pizzicato downtempo beats, subtly refractive guitar parts and falsetto vocals, not too far from Thom Yorke's solo material , especially when a phalanx of whirring synths arrive towards the end, or a more bass-heavy Cloud Boat, making glaciers across the landscape.

Grubs - Dec 15th/Gym Shame

Grubs are Owen from Joanna Gruesome, Roxy from Two White Cranes and Jake from, erm, Twitter. We've kind of covered the first of these tracks before over on Tumblr but they're both together on a new double A-sided flexidisc which comes to a total of 2 minutes 44. Dec 15th is lackadasical in the best way, Gym Shame lo-fi and fuzzy, both clatter with semi-shouty slacker pop cool.

Cast And Crew - Rory

Sometimes you just want to make noise. Cast And Crew are a Birmingham duo, half of whom are Paul from the late Ace Bushy Striptease, whose name-your-price EP is straight-up awkward noisepop, one eye on Distophia and their errant children, nothing at all indebted to that whole blues duo thing. Good.

Childhood have been much talked about in big brother music press 'new Britpop OMG' terms but, like fellow Midlanders Superfood, that's not entirely helpful when covering what they do. Sure, this single from Dan Carey-produced debut album Lacuna (out August 11th) sounds ready for prime-time with its old-school-pop ambition and stabs of Eighties effect synth, but where the big chorus should be is drifting vocals coated in self-doubt, luminous twinkling guitar sounds and an awkward groove that wouldn't fill the floor at an indie disco but is distinctive enough to demonstrate where a lot of those not dissimilar 2004 records fell down.